I love you Mellark
by MiaMellark0PeetaHG
Summary: Katniss and Peeta are 18 years old, living in district 12. Everything that happened in the books happened in this story, except the epilogue. Katniss is pregnant! I hope you enjoy it! :D Btw in all my stories, Katniss is Jennifer Lawerence and Peeta is Josh Hutcherson! 3
1. I love you Mellark

How am I going to tell him? Peeta, who yesterdays biggest worry was Burning bread. I know he would make a great father, but he would be sacrificing his life and his future for the baby and I. I, don't have any more potential in life. There is no real bright, successful future for me, but Peeta, his bakery is now so busy, I hardly get to see him during the days. His paintings picking up to, with more and more people purchasing canvases with images of the two arenas illustrated beautifully on them. I of course won't let him bring them near me because the memories are too painful.

If he commits to being a father, then he will have to commit to throwing the rest of his life away, but I guess I am most of his life, anyway. I look down at my small baby bump, just noticeable, and rub it genteelly.

"Who knew you'd be living there inside me?" My hands can just about trace the slight curve of the upward bump. "Your already causing trouble and your not even born yet!" I give a small laugh and decide I'm going to tell him. Today. There's no point keeping it much longer considering I'll be as big as a house soon. The thought scares me.

I walk into the kitchen and wait for Peeta to come home from work, thinking about how he will handle this. He is eighteen now and I will be in a few months time. We are still so young. All the responsibility, the time we will have to spend on the child…

Peeta walks into the room looking flushed from work.

"Rough day, Peeta?" I say.

"Oh my god. What a crowd! I mean, we had to give out tickets with numbers on them in order to get through everyone!" He walks past the kitchen countertop, where I'm leaning, and kisses me. Then his muscular body slumps down into a plush chair across from the fireplace.

Should I say something now? Or should I wait for a better opportunity? Who am I kidding; this is the best opportunity I'll ever get. He's exhausted from work and his brain is probably tired so he won't have the time or strength to over think it too much, like I always do. Okay. I'm going to tell him.

"Peeta?"

"Katniss, can you bring me some water please? I'm famished."

I quickly fill up a glass cup with some cool running water and walk over and hand it to him. I sit cautiously on the couch beside him while he takes a swig.

"Peeta, I—" He then cuts me off by saying,

"Thanks for the water. You know, it's nicer then the stuff down at the bakery. Colder and more… refreshing!"

"That's… nice. So anyway," I get cut off again

"Why is that?"

I sigh. "I don't know. Can I talk now?"

"Yeah sure."

So I begin, more annoyed now then nervous.

"Peeta, I'm—"

"Maybe I should bring a water bottle into work. So I can have so decent water. The stuff there tastes like—"

"PEETA!" I yell. He looks taken back by my frustration. Finally I shut him up.

"I'm pr-" I stop. My mouth fills with saliva so I cough to try and clear it.

"Well, I'm pr-" I feel a stirring in my stomach and its not the baby. It makes its way up my gullet and into my mouth. Spontiously, my cheeks puff out and I cover my mouth with my hands as I run for the bathroom. About halfway there I start puking all over the floor. When I do get to the bathroom I lift the toilet lid and seat and vomit more into the actual bowl. Finally it stops when Peeta rushes in looking worried.

"Katniss! W-what happened?"

"Isn't it a bit obvious what happened?" My tone is sarcastic yet slightly ticked-off. Peeta picks me up off the floor and makes me brush my teeth. I do so without argument because the grotesque acidic taste left in my mouth is bad enough to make me vomit again. After that he helps me strip off the sick covered clothing and puts me in the shower. The water feels so good on my skin. I close my eyes and let it drench my hair, feel the warm droplets run down me. When I open them again, I see Peeta staring at me, those deep blue irises fixated on my face. He smiles and suddenly, I don't want him looking at me. He may notice the bump, and my breasts have grown because of the baby too. If he figures it out on his own, he will be annoyed I didn't tell him. And even if I say I was going to, he wouldn't believe me. So I yank him into the shower.

"Hey!" He hops out jerkily just to take his clothes off. He leaves his boxers on though, which annoys me. While I'm here stark naked he is at least covering some of his bits. When I run my eyes up and down his body, I study the smooth curve of his biceps, the slight muscular tone to his torso and the small line of blonde tinted hair running from his belly button down. An urge rushes through me. An urge to rip off his boxers and jump on top of him. But instead I let him wrap his arms round me once he gets back into the shower.

We stand there a while. Not talking. Just embracing each other's presence with the hot water soaking us. I want to tell him about the baby now but every time I open my mouth, it fills with steam and I close it again. I decide I will count to 10 and tell him.

1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9.. there's no going back now..10


	2. Chapter 2

"Peeta I'm pregnant."

I shouldn't have said anything. One second after I tell him he releases his grip on me and looks at me with so much worry on his face, I think I might start crying.

"What?' He's shocked too, which means he had no idea.

"I'm pregnant." I say again to clarify things.

There's a long pause. The only thing that happens is we stare into each other's eyes, trying to figure out the others emotions. Really I'm starting to regret saying anything, and am about to breakdown in tears when he starts laughing. His worried expression changes into an exhilarated one. Smiling from ear to ear, he says, "Katniss! This is amazing! I'm going to be a father!"  
"I-I didn't think you'd be so willing to commit to—"

"What?! You know how much I love kids. And to have one that's all mine… I hope that doesn't sound creepy."  
I laugh. "No! It doesn't."

It is true, how good he is with children. One of his colleagues brought her one-year-old girl into work and the way Peeta held her, the way he played with her was like he had been a father 1000 times. He is good with children, far better then I am with them.

"I love you babe." Peeta says. He then turns the shower off because the amount of steam is ridiculous and we can barley see each other through it. Then, he starts kissing me. Passionately. We haven't kissed like this since the last time we had sex. That was months ago. I missed his soft lips against mine, the warmth of his hands gripping my arms. I can feel Peeta pushing my lips open with his tongue. It slips into my mouth and I wrap my tongue around his. Cool and slippery it feels licking mine. Again, all I want to do is jump on him and it's almost as if he can read my mind, when he picks me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. He then walks over to the bed where we fall over on top of each other, kissing in a wet mess. I slip my hands down his boxers and pull them off.

We position ourselves further up on the bed. Peeta slowly pushes himself into me, and I gasp. I then try to follow his smooth movements. It feels so good, to have him inside me again after all this time. And I savor every moment of it. Each thrust gets harder and faster and I can feel the sweat dripping down my forehead. I lay my head flat on the bed while Peeta props both my legs on his shoulders. I know he likes this position, so we stay like this for a while, gradually getting faster. Peeta likes being in charge, in control of my body.

After a while, I pull Peeta on top of me, and flip him over so I can be in charge now. He doesn't like me doing all the work, but I don't care. I move quickly so he can't protest. I like this position, and he knows it. My moans mimic his as we move through the night. With every thrust, the feeling gets better and better. I take Peeta's hand and put it between my legs. I can feel it in me as well now. We move faster and faster, Peeta's other hand grips my hip and moves with me. He looks into my eyes as we reach our climax. His head slams into my chest and I grip his hair for handlebars.

"Oh Peeta!" I scream as my eyes squeeze shut.

"Fuck!" Peeta Groans and I bite my lip as I feel Peeta's warm liquid flow through me. I reach under me to take his hand and he falls back on his back. I bring it to my lips and shove three fingers in my mouth. The sweet taste from the liquid mixes with the salty taste of sweat. I bring the hand to Peeta's mouth and he laps it again and again. I giggle. Then, I roll off of him and crash down beside his hot body. He lies there, smiling at me from ear to ear.

"That felt good." He whispers, brushing the strands of sweaty hair away from my forehead.

"Yeah. It did." I say as Peeta Crawls back on top of me.

He shimmies his way down to my legs and pries them open gently. He kisses the inside of my thigh and works his way up. His tongue flicks over in between my legs and I gasp. Each flick sends a shoot of pleasure through my body. He's teasing me, seeing how much I enjoy it and want it. His lips start to trail off upwards, to my baby bump, which he kisses intensely. It trails up to my belly button, then my chest and breasts. With his tongue, he plays with one of my nipples. And his fingers roll the other one back and forth. I sigh as he moves further up my body. He sucks on my neck. Hard. So hard it almost becomes uncomfortable, but just before it does, he brings his lips up to mine, and kisses me gently before saying:

"Goodnight babe."

Then the lights go out.


	3. Chapter 3

I only dream about one thing tonight. One thing only. Peeta Mellark. Peeta Mellark kissing me, Peeta Mellark holding my naked body, Peeta Mellark laughing with me and Peeta Mellark holding his child, holding his baby. His arms cradling the little fragile being, just like he cradled me all those long nights after the arena.

When I wake up, the first thing I see is a pillow. Peeta's pillow with no head in it.

It's Sunday, which used to mean hunting with Gale, but now, I save every minute of the day for Peeta.

He isn't lying next to me, though. I wonder if he went in to work today any way, even if it is his day off.

I sit up and get out of the bed to go put some clothes on. The only thing in the closet that looks half decent to wear is a tight black vest top and a pair of brown leggings. I'm worried I won't fit into them, but then again, I'm not as big as I think I am.

I pop them on without a problem.

My teeth feel dirty, so I quickly brush them and brush my hair. Today, it takes me a long time to braid it down my back. After my hair is done I focus on my face. I forgot I slapped on a bit of make-up yesterday, and now I look like a prostitute. There are dark rings from smudged mascara under my eyes and a thick mess of blood red lipstick smudged across my lips. I straighten up the lipstick and redo my mascara. There. At least I'm looking half decent today.

I turn around on my heels, ready to go find Peeta when I see I didn't have to look very far. He is standing in the doorway of the bathroom, nicely groomed, but smiling at me with puffy red eyes.

"Oh, no. Peeta what happened?" I ask, locking my arms around his neck.

"It's nothing. J-just a nightmare."  
I feel so guilty, even though I have no reason to. While I've had the best dream ever, Peeta's been in hell.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Now I really want to know.

"Well, I don't want to upset you."  
I give a laugh. "The only thing upsetting me is seeing how much pain your in. Please, tell me, baby."  
He lets out a sigh.

"Alright then. We were in some, weird world. It was nighttime, I think. And the sky was a blackish bluish purple color. Massive thorny trees surrounded us. You, me and Gale. You were pregnant, although you could decide who the father was. And your choices were Gale or me. I think you were about to choose me, because you started walking in my direction smiling, but then I went all mutt. I tried to strangle you again, and I ended up scratching your bump. It was such a deep scratch that it could have damaged the baby. Gale took a whack at me and I came to my senses. But it was too late. You had already changed your mind, and the two of you were kissing. Then, you said _I choose you, Gale. It's always been you. _And that's when a massive black hole formed in the ground and sucked me up. Like the hole that the mutts jumped into in the first arena, after they killed Cato. Then I woke up."

I just stare at him for a while. Not knowing what to say. He knows I would never choose Gale over him anymore. And he knows that I finally understand his mutt breakdowns. I do think of one thing to say.

"I choose you, Peeta. It's always been you." I then kiss him to try and flush all the bad thoughts out of head.

"Come on," I say when we finally pull apart. "Your all mine today, it's about time I teach you how to shoot." He laughs and takes my hand as I drag him down stairs and out the door.

There's a small field where they now hold archery lessons for people. I work here sometime for no pay if I have nothing else to do. The field is quite big, with a small building at either end where you can sign up for lessons and get equipped. I take Peeta there first to collect some bows and arrows.

When we walk in, two people sit behind the counter where you normally pay, and one instructor, Coral, sits smiling at us on a stool by the equipment.

"Hey Katniss!" Coral chirps. "Haven't seen you since last week! How's everything going?'

Ugh. Small talk. I hate it.

"Great! Thanks Coral! Um, I need two bows and sheaths, please."

"Coming right up! Who's this guy then, huh?" She says guesturing towards Peeta. I'm surprised she doesn't know him, most people in Panem do, let alone District 12.

"Um, this is my, boyfriend, Peeta."

Peeta shakes her hand. "Hey, Coral, was it?"  
She laughs "Ahaha! Yes! I think I recognize you!"

I take the bows and sheaths from her hand and drag Peeta away from her.

"Okay, bye Coral! Thank you for… um… thank you!'

"Wait! Katniss! Wait!" she yells as Peeta and I walk away. I huff as I turn to see her face. "What, Coral?"

"Y-you have something on your neck. Near the middle. It's big and purple."

I walk further up the hall in the building and look in a mirror on the wall. I can't believe I missed it this morning! A huge purple hickey right in the middle of my neck! I shoot Peeta an evil glance, but he just laughs his head off. "Thank you for warning me!" I shout back to Coral. "Careful where you step, if you want to get any tonight." I warn Peeta as I walk of outside to the shooting range. It's pointless threatening Peeta with sexually related punishments. He just gets horny beyond belief and we end up doing it in public. Last time I got mad at him, we were at the park and I said I'm going to sleep with some one else if he doesn't start behaving, but of course, he never behaves so we ended up having sex in a tree. Another time we were having dinner in a restaurant with Prim, Haymitch, Gale, Hazelle and my mother, and Peeta kept pinching my leg under the table, so I whispered to him "Stop, or your girl friends going off with Gale." But he didn't stop. He just kept pushing and pushing until I wanted it too, so we went to the Female restrooms and did it in a cubicle. It was fun, until my mother walked in on us.

I shake my head to clear the thoughts.


	4. Chapter 4

"Katniss, wait!" Peeta calls after me but I can tell by his tone of voice that he is still very much amused.

"Katniss!" I keep up my brisk walk until I reach a section of the shooting range with a pillar labeled 20. There are 40 sections in the shooting range, all designated by a pillar. Apparently, I am the reason they built this center, so they say pillar 20 is specially reserved for me at all times. Other people can use it though, if they get the O.K from me.

"Katniss!" Peeta grabs my shoulder and I start.

"I'm really annoyed at you!" I say trying to shake his grip. He looks perplexed. "Why babe? Is it because I gave you a hickey?"

My hand rubs the purple mark and I feel really self-cautious.

"Yes Peeta. Why didn't you tell me?!" I yell.

"I-I thought you… knew."

"Ya, well I didn't! So thank you for humiliating me in front of everyone! I've been walking around all morning with a giant purple bruise on my neck! I'm surprised no one pointed and laughed. Your such a… sometimes… your so, annoying Peeta!" I slap his hand until he moves it from my shoulder.

"Jesus, baby if you didn't want me to do it you should have stopped me last night! No need to yell at me Katniss! And why the hell are you getting in such a fricking strop over nothing? You know, when you act like this, I feel humiliated to be seen with you in public!" Peeta says with such an angry look on his face.

I feel a pang of hurt and again, I feel self-cautious. Am I really embarrassing? So embarrassing that my own boyfriend doesn't want to be seen with me? This makes me sad, so sad that I feel the tears well up in my eyes. Peeta immediately notices my change in emotion and hugs me.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it! Please don't, don't cry." His voice makes me cry even more.

"Katniss!" his arms envelope me in warmth and I snuggle my tearful face into his chest.

After I get calm down a bit, I lift up my head.

"I'm sorry Peeta! I'm such a bad girlfriend!" I sob.

"Oh no baby, your not."

"Yes I am!" I argue. "I'm crying! Why am I crying?!"

"Sweetie, it's just your hormones. From the baby." His fingers wipe the tears away from my face, and eventually they stop flowing out of my eyes.

We just stand there a while, staring into each other's eyes. Not moving, not talking. Just staring. Then, we shut our eyes and I lean in for a kiss, but am interrupted by a voice.

"Hey! Catnip!" Gale.

I peer past Peeta's body and see Gale, looking as striking as ever, walking up to pillar 40. Gale came back from district two about 8 months ago. He had a few lovers over there, but he said he couldn't stop thinking about me, so he came back home to find me and tell me how much he loved me. Only trouble was I was in love with Peeta. Gale understood at first, and we kind of acted like friends again, until he started trying to seduce me. One time, he pushed me against a wall and kissed me with such force that I couldn't get away. I tried to but he was too strong. He would have gotten into my panties if Peeta hadn't walked by and seen him. They got into a full on fight. Peeta got a split lip and gave Gale a black eye! I don't like thinking that I am the reason they despise each other. Every time Gale comes near me now, Peeta gets really protective.

Like now, he stands in front facing away from me, and puts his arms around me like a barrier.

Peeta almost spits out the words, "What do you want Hawthorn?"

"You know what I want bread boy! I want that hot chick behind you." He says, laughing as he points at me.

"Hey Catnip. Today's hunting day right?"

I try to move round, "Gale, I…" but Peeta pushes me back.

"For god sake, let the lady talk Mellark!" Gale yells. "She can speak for herself, you know. I'd much rather hear her voice then yours anyway!" This only makes Peeta tighten his grip around me. "Gale. Get the fuck away from us." Peeta says.

"Oh, that's nice, isn't it? Your so sweet Peeta! I don't think Katniss should be with such a dick! Surly she'd rather have me loving her at night." Gale teases. "Gale, please, don't!" I shout at him. Peeta starts to tremble and shake with anger. "I can imagine it. Me, inside Katniss. Her body straddling mine. I could love her better then you can Mellark!" He smirks. Peeta starts growling and I know what's going to happen. He is going to have a mutt breakdown again. I stand in front of him and try to calm him down. "Peeta, look at me. Look at me!" his eyes ware fixated on Gale. I take his stiff face carefully in my hands and slowly, his eyes slide down to meet mine. His pupils have dilated so much that they have swallowed up his beautiful blue irises. I don't really know how to calm him down. When he sees my face and he is in his mutt state, he thinks he has to kill me. His hands ball into fists and I know he wants to punch me.

"Peeta. Please. Don't do this. Your baby needs you." I say rubbing my small bump. I swear it's grown over night. I take his trembling hand and place it on my stomach. I think he gets it because he slowly starts to release his fingers and eventually spreads them across my stomach.

His breathing is very heavy and quick but the colour returns to his eyes. And I sigh with relief.

His eyes shut for a moment while he tries to catch his breath, and his hands slide down to his sides. I take this time to sort out Gale.

I walk over to him and I see that his face is full of amusement.

"It's not funny Gale, so I suggest you wipe the smirk off your face before I smack it off."

He looks taken back by my anger.

"Oh, Catnip. I was just joking! You know how guys fantasize about sex." He says.

"But you don't go saying things like THAT to someone whose mind is as fragile as Peeta's! You remember what the Capitol did to him, don't you? You thought it was sick. And I do recall you being the first person to volunteer to rescue him." I say matter-of-factly.

He sighs. "Katniss, that was only because I wanted you to act normal again. I couldn't bare seeing you in the state that you were in!" I don't really know what else to say. There's nothing else to say really.

"I miss you Katniss." His face is serious and sad.

"I… miss you too Gale. But you ruined our friendship by falling in love with me." He knows it's true, and he knows he was wrong to act like such a prick when Peeta was around.

"I can't help that." He sighs and I know what he means. You can't help whom you fall in love with, it just happens. And unfortunately, Gale had to fall for me.

"I want you Katniss. I need you. Please?" he comes closer to me and holds my face in his hands. I shake my head to get his hands off. "No Gale. I love Peeta. And… and… I'm pregnant with his baby."


	5. Chapter 5

Oh no! Why did I say that? Why did I tell Gale? I haven't even told my mother yet! His face drains of any seriousness that was on it and sadness replaces it. Such sadness. This is probably the saddest I have ever seen him. He looks more upset then when I was chosen at the reaping, or when he told me district 12 was gone. He opens his mouth, but no words come out. I look back at Peeta and see that his position is completely unchanged. I then look back at Gale. He keeps trying to speak but can't find the words to say. So I decide to speak up. "I shouldn't have said that to you." I say truthfully.

"Katniss. Y-your… p-pregnant?" He stammers.

My head nods as he shakes his in disapointment.

"I-I can't believe it. Didn't you use protection?" For some reason he starts getting angry with me.

"What's that?" I don't know what he means by 'protection.'

"Oh my god. Katniss, did Peeta put a condom on before you guys…" Gale trails off and I know it's because the thought of me and Peeta having sex is unbearable for him.

"What's a… condo?"

"CONDOM! Did you not pay attention in sex ed class at all?" he says

"No I didn't. School wasn't my main priority when I was 12." When I had my first sex ed class at school, I was 12 and my father had just died. Most of the lessons I spent looking out of the window, longingly hoping my father would pop out somewhere. But he never did. And ever day I went without food, so I would get hungrier and hungrier, I didn't pay attention at all. I couldn't pay attention to anything else other then my stomach rumbling and the pain from missing my father.

"God Katniss!" Gale throws his hands up and then stares at Peeta. Hatred and rage grow in his eyes and when he speaks his words, he hisses.

"I hate that dick. He knocked you up." He keeps staring at Peeta. Staring.

"It was my doing just as much as it was-" I'm cut off.

"No Katniss! He's the guy! He wears the protection!"

"Don't get mad at-" Cut off yet again.

"Was he a virgin before you slept together?"

"No." I say. Peeta had experience with one other girl, but she had died in the bombings. I can't remember her name.

"She didn't get pregnant, did she?" He says accusingly.

"What are you trying to prove Gale? That Peeta's…" I trail off because I don't know what the end of my sentence is meant to be.

"That Peeta knocked you up so you'd never leave him. He knows that as long as you two have a baby, you'll stay together. And you won't ever go off with any other guys."

My face looks questioningly at Gale, because I don't know how on earth he reached this verdict. What does he think that for? Peeta isn't that type of guy, and he knows it. He's just annoyed that he will never get me.

"Your crazy!" I shout. "If you think for one minute that Peeta got me pregnant for a selfish reason like that, then think again, because that sounds like something you would do."

His face registers an emotion that even I can't name, and he stands there a while looking at me. Then he shakes his head in disapointment and starts laughing.

"Here he comes. I better go before I punch his head off. See you later, Catnip." He blows a sexy kiss to me, and starts walking away, laughing and kicking the grass as he goes.


	6. Chapter 6

I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn around to see Peeta, his eyes following Gale as he walks away.

He then looks down at me.

"I'm so sorry." He huffs.

"No! Don't be! It wasn't your fault." My lips curl into a reassuring smile, and he returns the smile.

"Come on then, let's start shooting before another distraction comes along."

I take his hand and try leading him back to the shooting range, but I feel his restrain.

"Katniss, I don't think we should."  
"Why not?" My grip loosens on his hand and I let my arm fall to my side. "Come on Peeta, we've wasted all of this time!"

"I just think it may trigger too many memories. Bad ones. And I don't want to put the baby at risk. I couldn't live with myself if I ever hurt it."  
He is right. As much as I love shooting, there is no way in hell I love it more than Peeta or our baby.

Come to think of it, there is nothing I love more then the two of them.

"Okay then." I sigh, taking his hand again and walking towards the woods at the bottom of the shooting range.

"Wa-ait a second." He stops right into the middle of our shooting section. "Where are you going now?"  
I giggle mischeviously.

"Just… come on." I lead him further down, closer to the woods. Past the first archery board, then the second. Then the third, and finally we get to the fourth. Behind it, is a small wooden fence that runs along behind the whole center. I hear a voice calling after us

"Hey!" There is a man at pillar 19 calling us. "HEY! WHERE ARE YOU TWO GOING?"  
I don't recognize him.

"WERE GETTING MY ARROW!" I shout back, and he nods in approval and understanding.

Peeta hops over the fence, and then helps me over. Once I'm on the other side, I look up and gasp at the beauty of the woods.

The canopy of trees, so green and shining above us, the scatter of woodland birds, fluttering in and out our view, and the honey comb sun, peaking through the plants and glazing the forest floor in a glossy colour It takes my breath away. Every time. The beauty of nature.

I look over at Peeta, who picks up a pile of crisp leaves and raises his eyebrows.

"What are you going to-" I stop to cover my face, while Peeta chucks the lot right at me.

"Peeta!" I laugh as I pick quickly gather a pile and try and throw it on him. He keeps dodging me, and I keep having to stop to pick up more leaves. Eventually, he starts running through the woods. I chase him, laughing every time I hear his chuckle echo through the trees. The leaves start slipping through my fingers as I run, but I manage to keep hold of a few.

He is quite fast and soon, I loose him when he darts left. I stand up straight with the leaves that hadn't been whipped out of my arms by the breeze in my clutch.

Where did he go? I know he is hiding, and is planning on jumping out and making me scream.

"Peeta? Where are you?" I sing and creep closer to a tree that I am sure he is behind.

"Peeta?" I stop and listen for his voice. I hear a twig snap and I'm guessing that his foot caused the noise. I'm just about to peer round the tree when he jumps right out at me and shouts in my face.

"AH!" I scream and throw my hands up, causing the pile of leaves to fly up in the air and then land around us.

Peeta almost falls backwards laughing at me.

I push him playfully telling him to stop laughing.

After a while, he calms down.

"That wasn't funny Peeta!" I say, but I am smirking a bit myself.

"Oh, come on baby! That was quite hilarious. You have to admit."

He smiles at me and I can see he wants to start laughing again. But instead, he comes closer to me and kisses me. Vigorously on the lips. I shut my eyes and lean into him, his strong body supporting all of my weight. One of my arms wraps around his neck, while the other slides into his hair. He pulls away from me for a moment, and I look questioningly at him.

"Do you remember that time we had sex in a tree?"

"I like the way you think Mellark!" I say as seductively as I can. Our lips lock again and he hikes one of my legs up around his waist. His hand rubs my thigh, making me moan. He grabs the other thigh too, and I wrap my feet together so I can hang on to his body easier. Then I feel him start walking.

We slam against a tree trunk. I feel Peeta's hands tugging on the bottom of my shirt, so I break away from him and lift my arms up while he slips my shirt off, and then his own. He takes his pants off as well. We continue kissing for a while, and I try to take off my leggings, but Peeta grabs my hands and stops me.

"Wait a second." He says and he puts me down on the ground. He then jogs off back into the woods.

"Where are you going?" I call after him, but he doesn't reply.

A few seconds later, I see him coming back with a spiral shaped object in his hands.

"What's that?" I ask as he stands back with me.

'You'll see." He winks and takes my wrists in his hands and puts them above my head. The spiral object unravels and i see that it's a rope. I wonder where he got it from. He ties it around my wrists in a triple knot, and takes the other end and throws it up on a branch over us. When he pulls on the rope, I'm lifted slightly off the ground. He chucks it over again and again until I have to stand on my tiptoes to touch the floor. Once that's done with, Peeta takes my leggings and pulls them off. He then bites my panties and pulls them off as well using his mouth.

His teeth lightly graze the skin on up my leg, my thigh. A moan escapes my lips. He makes his way up my torso, my chest and my neck. My guess is Peeta likes it when I defenseless against him, because with my arms all tied up, he can do whatever he likes to me.

The thought makes me excited.

His hands trail down to my bra, which he pulls up but not off because my arms are tied.

He licks one of my breasts then puts the whole thing in his mouth. I can feel his teeth biting my nipple softly and it tickles. He grabs the other one and rubs it fiercely between his hands. It starts to hurt a bit, but the pain makes me feel so sexy.

After a while, he lifts my legs up over his shoulders and gives me a seductive smile.

He rubs my clit gently with his tongue, which makes me gasp with pleasure.

"Katniss?" Peeta says

"Uuuh. What?" I say leaning my head back against the tree trunk.

"Do you like… this?" He pushes two fingers deeply into me.

"Yes Peeta!" I practically scream.

He pumps faster and deeper into me and I can't help the number of sexual sounds I start to make.

When I'm nearly there, he stops.

"Peeta?" I can't do anything to make him continue because of my arms.

He lets my legs drop down to his waist and leans his arms against the tree either side of me.

"You've been a naughty girl, Katniss Everdeen." He whispers into my ear, and then he starts biting my neck. He spanks my ass.

My lower region urges for him now, so badly.

"Yes, yes. Very bad." I whisper back.

"What am I going to do with you?" He says and he spanks me again.  
"Teach me a lesson." I say and I give him the sexiest look I can manage. I think it works because I feel him harden between my legs. He whips his boxers off and I see how big his erection is. Slowly, he pushes into me. I carry on making my weird sexual noises as he goes deeper, and deeper.

"Oh, Peeta. Faster!" I groan and he goes faster. The pleasure building up inside me is building up in Peeta as well, I can tell by his facial expressions.

The branch that I'm tied to is shaking now, so much that a few leaves have fallen on us. But I don't care. I ball my hands into fists and try to stop myself from screaming by biting my lip, but it doesn't work. As I feel my self tighten around him, a few screams come out of me. I'm so close to coming when Peeta stops.

"Peeta!" I scream at him. He stays inside me so I try to move my hips up and down his shaft but he holds them in place.

"Why did you stop?!"

"I just felt your uterus." He says, and a grave look of disgust is displayed on his face.

"So? That doesn't mean you have to stop!" I say back.

"But… the baby… is in the uterus. And, that means… I…"  
"Peeta," I interrupt, "You haven't touched the baby, O.K?"  
I can see how weird he feels. He shakes his arms out and his head.  
"Sorry. Let's try again."  
"Thank you babe. Just, don't think about it, okay?" I give him a reassuring smile and start wriggling my hips again. He pushes further into me and I start moaning. I hope Peeta doesn't stop again. He is moaning too, which is a good sign. We keep going at a steady pace for a while, until Peeta grabs by breast with both of his arms. This makes me feel even sexier and I feel myself tighten around him once again. He lets out one last moan and comes just before I come on him.

We just stand there for a minute, panting naked in the middle of the forest. A cool breeze picks up.

His eyes meet mine and we gaze at each other for a moment. I always love staring into those beautiful shimmering blue eyes that shine even when no sun reflects on them. He gives a small laugh and looks down at the ground, before saying, "Now how do we get you out of the tree?"


	7. 5 months later

5 months later:

I feel awful. I can barley move now, so I spend most of my time sleeping or crying. Peeta is now taking time off work until the baby comes so at least I'm not alone.  
It's 10am Saturday morning, and the cold December air whips through the open window.  
Peeta is still asleep. Last night I kept waking up with a searing pain in my back and Peeta had to rub it for me or bring me medicine. I think I woke him up about 8 times last night. He never gets any sleep anymore. I can't wait till this whole pregnancy is over! I'm sick to death of it! All these months of constant throwing up, back aches, crazy hormones and pain. My breasts have grown so much that half of my bras don't fit me anymore. They always leak milk and hurt like hell! Sometimes I feel like I might start crying the pain is so bad, and I have quite a high pain threshold. But being pregnant has made it lower I guess. I start to feel a pain in my back again.

"Peeta?" I whisper shaking him awake.

"Peeta." He rolls over and looks at me with tired eyes. Then he sits up straight looking worried.

"What? What's the matter Katniss?"  
"My back… again." One of my hands rests on my protruding abdomen while the other rubs my back.

"No don't worry, I'll do it." He says rubbing my back with both of his hands.

"Thanks babe." I sigh with relief as the pain starts to go away. I shut my eyes and I think I'm about to fall asleep again, when Peeta tries to pick me up.

"What are you doing?" I say because I really don't want to get up now.

"I just think your back will get better if you do some walking around. You know, just walk down stairs and maybe we can get some fresh air." He keeps trying to lift me up from behind.

"No Peeta! I don't want to get up!" I whine trying to slump back down onto the bed. But he is much stronger then me and soon he has lifted me up off the bed.

Peeta lets go of me and stands in front of me.

"Now, why don't we try walking?" His hand grasps mine and he pulls me out of our bedroom towards the stairs. Every step sends a shooting pain up my spine, making me whine even more.

"Peeta-a-a! Can you carry me?" He replies by laughing and shaking his head. I huff and start down the stairs. I manage about two steps before my back gives way and I nearly fall. Peeta catches me though, and says "Katniss, be careful!"

I don't like his tone of voice. It's too harsh and unfriendly. It makes me feel sad, so I start crying.

"Why can't you carry me?!" I yell through sobs of frustration.

"Can't you see… that I can't… I can't…" I stop talking and cover my face with hands.

"Oh, Katniss." Peeta tries to move my hands from my face, but I kick him so he leaves me alone.

"I know your hormones are crazy right now, but just listen to me. Listen to me." This time I let him move my hands, "You can do this, okay? Soon, it will all be over. Just, for the next month, try and get through it. And remember I'm always goanna be here to help you." He strokes my hair.

Okay. I can get through one more month.

"Yeah. I can do this." He takes my hand again while I sniff and rub the tears from my eyes. We then manage to get down the rest of the steps without me falling over.  
"You see?!" Peeta says excitedly as we reach the last step, "You did it!"

I feel like a baby who's learning to walk for the first time. We then slowly manage to walk towards the door.

"Okay, are you ready to go outside?" Peeta asks me.

"No." Is my reply, but he just laughs and opens the door. The warm spring air wisps into the house and the big yellow sun is shining so bright I have to half cover my eyes to see anything clearly.

Peeta looks at me dissatisfiedly.

"What?!" I yell at him because I know that I'm not exactly looking like a model now, but I don't care.

"It's just that… you can see half you stomach. And…" He walks behind me, "Your ass is hanging out of your shorts."

"I don't care Peeta! Can we just, go and get this over with?"

"Well, I don't want everyone in district 12 to see you like…"  
"Like what?" I interrupt him. "Like this? Well, being beautiful 24/7 isn't exactly my main priority at the moment! I can't believe you don't want people to see me like this! Are you that embarrassed by me?" My hormones are starting up again.

"No Katniss! It's just, that you look like a slut. I mean, your pregnant belly's barley covered, your shorts are super revealing and your boobs are nearly bursting out of your top." He says.

I turn 180 degrees to face the full-length mirror a few meters away from me. He is right. My vest top looks about five sizes too small with the bottom half of my baby-bump on show and my breasts looking like they're about to pop out of my bra. My shorts barley cover my underwear and you can see literally my whole bum. I turn back to Peeta and sigh.

"You know what? I don't care. So lets just go. Okay? You're the one who wants me to get out and get some fresh air!"

Peeta huffs and takes my hand. "Fine. But I don't feel comfortable with you going out looking like a slag."  
He leads us out of the door slowly and I say, "Well I do."

We walk about five meters away from our house when I have to stop.

"Where are we going Peeta?" I say trying to catch my breath.

"Come on, Katniss. We'll go to the museum and back. It's just around the corner!"  
The museum is where the old Justice building used to be. After I moved back here from the Capitol they decided to make it into a museum. I've been in there a few times because when I get bored, it's something to do, but I don't particularly like it. It's about the cruelty of the capitol and there's a huge section on The Hunger Games and a section for each district and a bit about the wars and the countries history. I don't mind looking at that, but it's the section about Peeta and I that I hate. A massive part of the museum is all about us. It includes our life before the games, during the games, after the games and before the quell, during the quell, after Peeta gets taken by the Capitol, when I went all rebel, during the Capitol mission, after the mission and our lives now. I hate the small memorial like section they have built especially the ones for Rue, Cinna and Prim. Although I agree that they should never be forgotten, I hate the way people walk past it and cry, because no one knows those deaths personally like I do. No one witnessed them in the same way I did. No one.

Anyway, they have stopped adding to it for now, but I'm sure once my baby is born there will be a whole section on it's life.

Peeta starts to lead me towards the museum.

We manage to get along all right. I don't feel as much pain in each step as I did earlier, and I can breath normally again. We are moving at a snails pace tough, and people smile and wave at us as we go. Some perverts give me the eye, or say, "Looking good, Mockingjay!" (but I don't know if their being sarcastic or not considering the state i'm in) and every time someone does, Peeta gets annoyed and tightens his grip around me.

After a while, my legs do start to hurt.

About a half hour later, we reach the museum.

"Do you wanna go in babe?" he asks guesturing towards the door with his hand.

There are about 30 steps you have to walk up to reach the main entrance. Ugh. I can't do steps.

"No. I think I'll actually die if I try those steps."

Peeta laughs and so do I.  
"Well, lets go to the cafe then. It's on the ground." He says and leads me to the café. It is on the ground, next to the giant staircase.

Inside the café is empty. There are no other people in here. I like it though, like this because it's quiet. There is a sign in front of us that says 'Wait to be seated.' So we wait until a waitress comes up to us, looking happy and smiley.

"Oh my god! Your Katniss and Peeta!"

I nod and pretend that I like being known by every single person in the country.

"Oh my god! Um, well, you can sit wherever you want! And if you need anything, please just ask!" She says, handing us both menus.

"Thank you." Peeta says in a very calm fashion.

She just squeals excitedly and runs off to the kitchen.

I plunk myself down in a random chair and sigh in relief. My whole body aches from walking, but now it can relax. Peeta pulls up a chair beside me.

"So, how you feeling?"

"I'm good. Tired. Who knew such a short walk could drain all my energy?" I say as Peeta strokes my face with the back of his hands. He then takes my face in his hands and comes in closer to kiss me. I shut my eyes anticipating the warmth of his soft lips, when someone interrupts us.

"Um, excuse me?" The waitress is smiling from ear to ear holding a piece of paper and a pen.  
"Could, I please have your autographs?"

Peeta takes the paper and pen out of her hands.

"What's your name hun?" He asks and she giggles in excitement.

"Um, It's… its K-kirana."

He writes,_ To Kirana, hope you succeed in life, love Peeta and_, he hands me the pen and slides over the paper. I write, _Katniss J xx._

I hand back her things and she laughs happily. "Thank you so much!" She runs off back to the kitchen.

I look back at Peeta who shrugs his shoulders.

My arms wrap around his neck and I say, "Now, where were we?"

He leans in again and kisses me, softly and passionately on the lips. The warmth of his lips makes me feel all tingly inside. I make some sort of groaning noise as his teeth gently bite my bottom lip. His tongue then traces the outline of my lips before slowly entering my mouth. But as soon as it does, I jerk away from him and grab my stomach so quickly that he falls forward.

"What? What happened?!" he asks in surprise as he picks himself back up. I feel a thud against the inside of my baby-bump.

"The baby's… kicking like crazy!" I screech as Peeta come up behind me and holds my tummy as well.

The thudding won't stop. The baby starts kicking harder and faster and it starts to scare me.

"Why is it kicking so much?" I'm starting to panic now. It's never kicked this much! I don't know why this is happening. My breathing becomes quicker as I worry more. "Katniss, baby listen to me. Your fine. Okay? Your fine." Peeta says trying to console me.

It's not stopping. The baby's not stopping. I shake my head. "No, Peeta. This isn't normal!" I start to hyperventilate. Peeta picks me up and I stand straight, while he comes around to the front of me and places his hands on my huge tummy. He waits a while before looking back up at me worriedly.

"Jesus. Your right." He says trying to stay calm.

"Wait here. Don't move!" He says and then runs towards the kitchen. He opens the double doors and shouts for someone to come and help. No one comes so he goes in to the kitchen. Oh no. Peeta's not here with me.

"Peeta!" I shout after him. "Peeta don't leave me!" I try to move around the table because I can't be without him. Not now. "Peeta!" I get halfway around the table when I feel a wave of pain hit me. My whole body is affected. I stop moving, and huddle over my belly. "Peeta! Peeta!" I scream. The pain gets worse. I don't know how to describe it as anything other then painful. The thudding won't stop. A warm liquid drips down my legs and forms a small puddle around my feet. For a second, I think I've wet myself. But I haven't.

Oh no. It's too early. I still have a month. It's a month till the baby's due. This can't be happening. This can't be happening! But it is.

Peeta bursts through the kitchen doors and runs up to me. About five other staff members follow him.

"Katniss, are you alright?" He sees the puddle around me and knows what happened.

But just to clarify things, I say, "I think my water just broke."


	8. Chapter 8

We burst through the massive hospital doors and into the maternity wing. Peeta whizzes through the halls, wheeling me along while I scream my head off in the wheelchair. Every time I get a contraction, it feels worse then the worse period pain you could ever get. My vagina feels like its being stretched and burned, and that feeling is constant. I don't know where Peeta's going, but I hope we get there fast.

I decide to squeeze my eyes shut and try to think of happy thoughts until we get help. Images of my baby at the end of all this flash through my head. I think of how beautiful it's going to be, and I picture Peeta cradling it in his arms. Egh. Peeta is the one who did this to me, so for right now, I try to keep him out of my thoughts. We stop suddenly, and I jerk forward, but keep my eyes shut because it takes my mind off the pain. I hear Peeta say frantically "She's in labor," then I hear another voice that sounds familiar and welcoming. My eyes fling open and Dr. Aurelius is standing next to Peeta, looking down on me.

I want to say something to him, but when I open my mouth a painful groaning sound comes out.

"Lets get her to a room." Dr. Aurelius says.

My eyes squeeze shut again as we wheel further down the hospital.

After a while, I hear the swinging of doors and we come to a stop once again. Someone shakes my shoulder but I don't bother opening my eyes to see who it is. I feel myself being lifted out of the wheelchair. Someone lifts my arms and someone else my legs and they carry me over and place me down on a slightly elevated surface. I open my eyes and see we are in a hospital room. Quite small, with a curtain either side of me. On the back wall there are rows of desk with scary looking apparatus on them. Two other nurses rush around me, and one of them lifts up my legs and gently puts them onto this weird device that will ensure they stay spread open.

"Hello Katniss. It's very nice to see you again." Says Dr. Aurelius. I just nod because if I try and say something, only a horrible noise will come out of my mouth. He then walks over to my legs and slowly inches off my shorts and underwear. This is the first time I can see that they are drenched with blood.

"Why am I bleeding?" I managed to say, although it sounds like I'm being strangled.

"Oh, well, sometimes with premature births, the uterus lining is released when the water breaks as well. It's not too serious." He says, strapping my feet into the weird device.

Oh no. I completely forgot that my baby is going to be premature.

"How… p-premature is my…" another contraction comes and I start shrieking.

Dr. Aurelius pats my arm softly and says, "About 37 hours over a month."

I breathe quickly and shut my eyes again to try and dull the pain.

When it stops, Peeta come up beside me.

"Katniss, baby we have to get this… thing on you okay?" He says, lifting up an ugly hospital rag… thing. I obediently lift up my arms and let him slide it on.

"Do you want some ice-chips?" He says.

I nod and push him away to go get some because I feel parched.

"Okay. You're 9 cm dilated. That means it's time to push." One of the nurses, a brown skinned black haired woman says.

"Already?" I ask. I thought this part was supposed to last a bit longer.

"Yes. This baby sure is in a hurry to get out! This normally happens with premature births." She says. I wish people would stop using that word!

"Okay," I reply, than look around the room frantically for Peeta, "where's Peeta? PEETA!" I yell out of the room "PEETA!" He comes running through the door. "Yes! Yes I'm here!" He comes up beside me and pours a few ice-chips on my tongue. They slowly melt and hydrate my whole mouth.

The other nurse, a chubby blonde lady with a pasty white face whose looks completely opposite to the other nurse, touches Peeta's shoulder and says, "She needs to start pushing now. You haven't signed for an epidural, have you?"

Peeta looks at me questioningly; I shrug my shoulders, than he looks back at the nurse. "No, no. What is it?"

She sighs and laughs. "You two are very young, aren't you?"  
"Um, I guess?" Peeta replies.

While the nurse explains to him what an epidural is, Dr. Aurelius rides up on his wheelie stool and sits between my legs. I can't see him past my huge belly, but he peaks his head round the side of my legs for a second.

"Are you ready to have this baby Katniss?" He asks in a kind voice. I like Dr. Aurelius. He doesn't treat me like a baby or a dog. My reply is, "No way." But he just laughs and tells me to push on his count. Peeta kneels beside me and takes my hand. "It's okay babe." He says softly. For a while, he stokes the hair that's still in my messy braid. Then, Dr. Aurelius says, "One… two… three… Push!" And I push as hard as I can.

It hurts so bad. So bad. I feel like I'm being ripped open, slowly, from the inside out! I grab onto Peeta's hand and squeeze it so tightly that I can see in the corner of my eye he stands up and winces, trying to loosen my grip by shaking his hand a bit.

"And, stop." The chubby nurse says and I breathe quickly and heavily with relief. My grip on Peeta's hand loosens and he immediately rubs his. "Well done Katniss. Have some more ice-chips." She says passing me the cup of ice-chips. I down the whole cup, even though your not supposed to. It feels like some of them are stuck and melting in my throat.

"Okay. Ready? Push." Dr. Aurelius says and I push again. My hand reaches out for Peeta's, but it doesn't find it. I wave it about, looking for something to grab onto. It doesn't find anything.

A few seconds later, Peeta crouches beside me and shouts motivational speech at me. "Come on baby! Come on Katniss! Well done! Your doing great! Keep going! You can do it!" After a while I turn to him a slap him right on the cheek.

"Shut the fuck up Peeta! You did this to me! You did this to me!" I scream.

"…And stop." One of the nurses says and I slump back, exhausted.

Peeta comes near me, and I see he is holding his face in his hands. "Katniss, I know your going through a lot right now…"  
"Shut it." I scold, and he does. "Just give me your hand." I reach out my arm and he backs away.

"Give me your fucking hand now! I don't care if it hurts, this hurts like hell! So give it to me! NOW!" He looks at me, scared, and then places his palm in mine. "One…two…three…push." Dr. Aurelius says and my fingers interlock with Peeta's and I squeeze his hand hard and push.

It seems to go on forever, this pushing. Every time I think the nurses are about to say stop, they say, "Just keep going sweetie." And I push with all my strength. My screaming gets louder every time I push.

It feels like hours before Dr. Aurelius says, "I can see the head!"

What? Has it actually taken this long just to get the head out? I keep pushing. My nails dig into Peeta's hand and he jerks around before I loosen my grip.

I clench my teeth together and squeeze my eyes shut, trying to think of happy thoughts, but with every push a scream of pain escapes my lips. Dr Aurelius says, "Well done Katniss! Just keep pushing as hard as you can," and I do. "But then, I just catch him saying, "She's loosing a lot of blood." To one of the nurses, and I stop pushing for a second.

"What? W-why am I bleeding?!" Peeta squeezes my hand lightly and I'm pretty sure I've broken all the bones in his. The world is going all white and fuzzy. As I look around I see that everything has turned a hazy colour.

"Keep going Katniss! Don't worry, just don't stop!" The dark nurse says behind Dr. Aurelius, and it's the first time I see her name plate says "Enastazia."

She then says to him, in an attempt of whispering, "We have to stop the blood flow, or it might drown the baby." I start shrieking and asking her what the hell is going on, but she just looks at me like I've said or heard something that I shouldn't have.

They all urge me to keep pushing so I do. I figure if the baby is out the blood can flow and not hurt it. It still hurts so bad.

About two minutes later, I feel like I'm about to pass out. I don't know if I can carry on. I push with all the muscle I can manage, and everything around me stays a bright white hazy colour. I stop screaming and hear the nurses say, as they rush around me, "She's lost too much blood! We have to get this baby out before she looses any more!" Their voices sound very muffled, and I don't why.

I push one last time with the last spark of energy I have left in me, and all of a sudden, I feel the baby leaving my body. The pain stops.

Everything goes quiet. I sigh with relief before slamming my head back against the bed. I can't hear my baby's cry. I can't hear the voices of the others either. Just an annoying humming noise.

As I look up at the ceiling, little black dots swim across my vision. Peeta's face then looks over me, worriedly, and he calls my name, but I can't hear it. I can't hear anything except humming. I smile, and feel happy. I reach my hand up and stroke his face before the black dots grow and I black out.


	9. Chapter 9

My eyes slowly open and stare at the ceiling above me. Its colour has gone back to normal. The last time I looked at it, it had a weird white hue to it, but now, it's plainly green. I lift my arm to rub my head and groan. I'm so stiff and sore that even this slight movement makes my muscles ache.

When I look down at my arm, I see that there are two tubes running from my wrists down. It looks like they've been stuck into my skin, because over where they start is a big piece of white tape. I see that the tubes are a ruby red color, and I'm guessing it is blood.

My other arm has the tubes stuck into it as well, and I trace it with my fingers. It runs all the way up my arms and goes under the sleeves of the ugly hospital rag. It then carries on up my neck, across my face and into my nose. Each nostril has two tubes in it.

I painfully pull my self-upright into a sitting position and see Enastazia walk towards me.

"Hello Katniss." She says in a kind voice.

"Hi." I croak, and then look at her for an explanation.

She sits herself down on a stool next to my bed and says, "You passed out the minute your baby was born. It was because you went into shock after loosing about half of your body's blood."

I look down at the tubes.

"So, why are all these attached to me?" I ask.

"Well, you needed a blood transfusion to stay alive. It's finished now. We were going to going to wait until you woke up to stop it." She says.

For while, I stare at her, because I know there is something else I want to ask her, but I can't remember what.  
"Where's Peeta?" I ask, but that wasn't it.

"Oh, he's just down the hall, watching your baby."  
That's it! How the hell did I forget?!  
"My baby!" I gasp, "What… how… is it okay?"  
I'm not exactly sure what the question is.

"Yes. Your little girl is gorgeous."

A girl. My little girl. I can't believe it. I haven't even thought about the gender until now, but now that I think about it, I'm glad it's a girl.

"She has to stay in an incubator for about a month. She was, malnourished because she still wasn't completely ready to leave the womb."

I bite my lip to try and stop the tears from welling up in my eyes.

"C-can I-I s-see her?" I stammer? She reaches over the bed and gently peels off the strips of tape on my wrists. I don't look because even a small hole in my wrist makes me squeamish.

I then feel a tugging on my arm, and Enastazia takes the tubes out of my nostrils and immediately clogs the flow with a plastic stopper. A few drops of blood drip onto my rag, but she quickly wipes my nose up. She then takes my dry hand in her soft brown palm and says, "Yes."

I swivel around and lower myself onto the floor to stand up. Every movement hurts. She puts her around me and says that I can lean all of my weight on her if I like. So I do. When we get to the door, she hands me a pair of crutches and I take them to walk with. The door opens and we walk outside.  
We are traveling at a snails pace through the maternity wing. The room with the incubators is only about 60 meters down the hall, but it takes us five or more minutes to get there. When we do finally enter the room, there are about 20 incubators in neat rows.

"Where's my baby?" I ask Enastazia, and she leads me over to the very back of the room, where I see Peeta kneeling beside an incubator. As soon as he sees me, he immediately jumps up and comes close to me, but doesn't touch me.

"Katniss! You're okay?!" He looks like he has been crying a lot, and seeing me may trigger the tears.

"Oh, I'm fine! Just sore!" I say and hold out my arms to hug him. He cautiously steps into my arms and wraps his lightly around me. It doesn't hurt. I then feel his strong hands stroking my hair, breathing in the scent of it. My head rests on his shoulders and we stay like this for a while.  
He is the first one to pull apart. "I love you babe. Don't ever scare me like that again." He says and kisses me gently on the lips.

"I love you too. And I wont." I croak, trying to keep the tears from flowing. "And… I'm sorry I was so… mean… when you were just trying to help me get through it." I can barely finish my sentence. Too many emotions and right now, my hormones are worse then they have ever been.

Enastazia comes up behind us and points to the incubator. "Would you like to see your baby?"  
I take a deep breath and nod, slowly walking towards my baby. I kneel down beside the incubator and my heart skips a beat when I see her.

She is tiny, absolutely tiny. The side of the incubator says, '3lb 7oz' on it, and I'm guessing that is how much she weighs.

I study all of her features. Her tiny little fingers curled into fists, her little scrunched up face, so cute and small, the small tuffs of black hair sprouting from her head, her little feet and toes sticking out of the blanket.  
I cover my mouth with my hands and suddenly, all the tears I have tried to hold back come pouring out of my eyes all at once. I try to stay calm, but end up choking and splutter. Peeta and Enastazia come up behind me and try to lift me up- because they think I'm having some sort of mental attack that is a side affect from the blood transfusion- but I jerk around telling them to get away. My hands and face press up against the glass, and I just stare at my daughter. My beautiful baby girl who is so loved. So loved. All the love I have left in me is now going toward my baby. My girl. Her little chest moves up and down slightly. Her lips are parted a little bit and I feel like I can hear her breathing.

Suddenly, I see her eyelids flicker. They open slightly, but keep fluttering shut. Then, they open completely and for the first time, I see her eyes. She looks up at me with beautiful big blue eyes, just like Peeta's. I gasp as she keeps looking at me. Studying the face of her mother. The tears won't stop flooding out of my eyes.

Enastazia kneels down beside me but my eyes stay fixated on my baby.

"Would you like to hold her?" She says softly.

I look at her with red puffy eyes. "Can I? I-I thought she had to stay in there."

She takes my hands and helps me up to a shaky standing position. "You can hold her. The maximum time she is allowed out of the incubator is five minutes." She then walks over to my baby and Peeta comes up behind me. I turn to him and he carefully wipes the tears off of my face.

"Oh Peeta." I say and he just kisses me lightly on the forehead.

Enastazia opens the incubator and very, very carefully lifts up my baby. I stare at her in amazement. She cradles her in her arms, and all of a sudden, my baby bursts into tears. I watch her as she walks towards me, slowly rocking my baby in her arms trying to get her to stop crying, but she doesn't. She wails and sobs and screams.

As Enastazia gets closer to me, I hold out my arms and watch as she puts my baby carefully into them. I then bring her closer to my body and rock her slightly. She is so small, just a tiny bit smaller then my forearm! I shut my eyes and take in this moment, because it will be gone before I know it. Her little fragile body is in my grasp. I'm finally holding my baby. She looks up to me with tearful eyes, and stares at me. I look back at her and nearly start choking on my tears. She stops crying. Her eyes erase signs of sorrow or frustration. They stare at me. Those lovely blue irises are fixed on my grey ones.

I shakily take my other hand and slowly rest it on her head. I stoke her hair gently and feel how smooth and soft it is. I then turn around and look at Peeta, who's staring at her, too.

"Peeta, she's-" I say, but can't finish my sentence because I start sobbing. He strokes my hair and tells me, "I know. She's perfect." I stop stroking her hair and take her little hand in mine. I watch as her little pink fingers wrap around my thumb. To me, this small, small motion tells me that she loves me, and she knows who I am.

"Would you like to hold her?" Enastazia says to Peeta. I almost forgot she was there.

Peeta nods. "Only if Katniss is ready."  
I look down at my baby one last time and slowly try to release the grasp of her hand. She tries to hold on and when she does let go, starts crying her head off again. It's heartbreaking, trying to pry her grip open. I carefully hand her over to Peeta, who cradles her in his arms. She immediately stops crying. He laughs with excitement and walks closer to me. I lean on his shoulder and watch our baby. Staring at us. Her blue eyes swap gazing at me, then Peeta then me, then Peeta.

"She's beautiful." I sigh through tears.

"Yes, she is gorgeous. Just like you." Peeta says, and looks at me with such genuine happiness on his face.

I lean down and kiss her soft hair. Her face scrunches up for a second and I think she is going to cry again, but she lets out a huge sneeze.

I laugh, and so do Peeta and Enastazia. Enastazia then comes up to us and says, "I'm sorry to break apart this, but I'm going to have to put her back in the incubator." Peeta kisses her head too, and I stroke her hair one last time. She starts crying, and Enastazia takes her back and puts her in the incubator.

She lies there, screaming her head off, crying like she's in pain.

I can't stand seeing her so upset. Someone so defenseless.

"Can we go?" I sob to Peeta because seeing her crying so much hurts, but I can't take my eyes off of her.

"Yeah. You need to rest." He says and takes my hand.

Enastazia props the crutches under my arms and we all hobble back to the hospital room.

I slump back on the bed, exhausted and aching from that tiny walk. My emotions are all over the place as well. I can't stop crying now either.

She is so beautiful. Every little bit of her is perfect. The image of her, in my arms, staring at me with those eyes stays in my head as I cry.

"You will be able to leave the hospital in about a week or more." Enastazia says. She needs to fill us up with information. "Your baby will need the incubator for another month, and then you can start breast feeding her. Now, because she was so premature, you will have to be extra careful with her. I hate to say this, but there is only a 60% chance of her survival. Most babies in her condition survive, in fact 7/10 premature babies turn out just fine, but there's no point risking it."

This makes me want to cry even more.

"Just before you leave for home with her, I'll give you some booklets on how to care for premature babies for the first few months.

Now. Katniss, you can't afford to loose any more blood. Even, if you get a minor cut from scissors, or something like that, it could knock you off course and you are likely to get so dizzy that you will eventually pass out." She then turns to Peeta, who is stroking my hair trying to get me stop crying.

"Peeta. You have to be very strong these next few months, both physically and mentally. Your two girls will need you, and you have to be there for them, okay?" She says kindly. "That's about it for now. I will tell you more when the time comes. I… think I'll give you two a moment alone." She says and walks towards the door. It opens, but she says "Oh! I almost forgot!" and before she walks out of it, she turns on her heels and says to us, "No sex. Katniss, your still wounded from the birth and sex will just bring on more blood. It could also damage the muscles in your vagina. There still worn out from pushing so much. And since your only eighteen, it makes it worse. So no sex for at least a month. Okay?" Peeta and I nod, and she smiles at us before walking out of the room and closing the door behind her.

"Well," Peeta says still stroking my hair," what do you think we should call our baby?"

I look at him and stop crying. I completely forgot about the name! These kinds of questions must eat up some mothers, but my mind wiped them clean out of my head.

"I-I don't know. Do you?" I say.

"I have some ideas." He says and gets out a little piece of yellow paper with scribbles on it. I Take it and study the text:

Boy names:

.Jacob

.Owan

.Aled

.Tress

Girl names:

.Tiala

.Ione

.Menique

.Laila

Laila. I hand back the piece of paper.

"I like Laila." I say to him.  
He nods. "Laila sounds good to me! What should her middle name be?"  
I know this. I have thought of this for some time. "Primrose. Definitely Primrose."

Peeta looks at me approvingly. "Laila Primrose Everdeen."

"No," I say, "Laila Primrose Mellark." He looks at me questioningly. "But, don't you want her to be-"

"I want her to be a Mellark. And I want to be a Mellark." I say. He looks at me for a while, and then starts smiling in an amused way. "What?!" I say to him and he starts laughing. "It's just, you… just proposed to me."

"No I didn't!" I scoff sounding alarmed.

"You did! You just did!" He laughs.

I just scowl at him in protest. "I never. When did I say 'Peeta, will you marry me?'"?

"You did, babe. There's no denying it!" He says and I throw my hands up.

"But only because I don't want our child to be a bastard!" I yell.

He stands up then sits next to me on the bed.

"Hey, listen. I don't have a ring. But as soon as I have a chance I'll get one, then propose and our baby won't be a bastard."

I look up at him and smile in appreciation.

"Oh. Now it wont is a surprise." I sigh

"But-uh, can you wait that long?" He says.

"Yes!" I laugh, and he takes my face in his hands and kisses me on the lips, then trails down towards my neck and starts tickling me with his tongue. I giggle and say for him to stop, but he doesn't. I jerk around slightly to try and get him off me, but it hurts so I stop. I can't stop laughing though, and by the time Enastazia comes back in, I'm in hysterics. Peeta stops tickling me quickly and looks at her mischievously. This makes me laugh even more.

I can't believe I got so lucky. I have the most beautiful baby in the world, and the greatest boyfriend in the world. The amount of love that I have for them in unbelievable. Every time I look at them, I feel like crying, because I never knew someone could love two people so much.


	10. Chapter 10

The black cab pulls up at the end of the street. I stare out of the raindrop smeared window at the grey sky. Laila was allowed to leave the hospital today, it's her due date. I also stayed in the hospital even after I was clear to leave, because I kept having nervous attacks. They were mainly caused by my constant worry for Laila's safety. I thought that if I left her side, she would die, and I would never see her again. Every time I thought of this I started freaking out and crying and screaming for someone to help me. But today, she was allowed out and so I left with her. I look down at her little face, so hidden in the bundle of blankets in my arms that you can only see her nose and mouth.

"Here you are. Victory street?" The cab driver says peering at Laila and I in his rear-view mirror.

"Could you pull up a bit? Were just a few blocks down the road." I say.

He huffs and shakes his head from side to side.

"You said Victory street, and victory street it is. So please exit now or I will drive away." He says rudely.

I scoff. "Um, I have a new born baby with me, and it's chucking it down outside, so I'd be really grateful if you would pull up outside my house so my baby doesn't freeze to death."

Suddenly he turns around so he is facing me. "Katniss, I said I would drive you here, and I have! Now I'm not being paid to drive you, so I say where we park. Either you exit now, or I drive away!" He yells. I keep forgetting everyone in the world knows me. He's from the capitol. Even though their cruel awful ways were abolished, the style has apparantley stayed in fashion. His curly pink hair is piled two feet high on top of his head, and his thick blue eye shadow compliments his cat-eye contact lenses and huge blue feather earrings perfectly. The thing that ticks me off is his accent. It's too posh. Peeta said his dad used to call it an English accent, which I don't think makes any sense at all, seeing all the districts spoke English normally.

"Fuck you." I say, opening the door. The rain is pouring down hard, so I clutch Laila into my chest tightly. I slid out of the cab, slam the door shut and run down the street. As the cab drives away, I see him shaking his head in disapointment, so I stick my middle finger up at him as he drives off. How hard is it to drive down the road? Or even half way? I run as fast as I can, but the floor is so slippery I don't want to fall or drop Laila. This road feels so long. All the other 11 houses in the victory village were destroyed after Haymitch moved to the capitol and me and Peeta moved in to his house. It's quite sad to see, that nothing but emptiness and gravel is our neighbourhood. Maybe in a few years we can move.

About 6 minutes later I finally reach our house. I ring the doorbell once, then twice. I haven't been in here for a month. I wonder if Peeta's tidied the place. The door opens and I step inside, shaking off the water droplets on my jacket.

"Katniss! Your soaked!" Peeta says relieving me of the jacket. "I thought you took a cab."

"I did! But the dick head stopped at the end of the fricking road! We had to walk all the way in the rain!" I take Laila away from my chest.

"God. What a bastard! Couldn't he see your carrying a baby?" Peeta says taking Laila.

"I said to him, 'Pull up so my baby doesn't freeze to death,' but he didn't give a shit. He was from the capitol." I say.

"Ah I see. That makes sense. Well, good thing I wasn't there. Because if I was, I would have-" Peeta says, but I cut him off by laughing.

"Don't try to be all macho babe." I say and kiss him lightly on the lips. He rolls his eyes and then unwraps Laila. He lifts her up so her eyes are level with his. One of his hands rests holding her bum and the other, holding her head and neck.

"Hello beauty. Hello my beautiful girl!" He coos kissing her head again and again.

I take her back from Peeta's grasp and do the same thing as he was doing. Her eyes are as deep blue as the sea, and they're big enough to swim in. They study my face, studying her face. She is still smaller then my forearm. I kiss her head and pull her into my chest. I then look around at the house. All the lights are off and the place looks quite littered.

"Peeta," I say, "have you done any cleaning at all?"

"Yes! I spent two hours cleaning yesterday! I'm surprised you can't tell!" He says, obviously hurt by my words.

"Well, why are all of the lights off?" I say and he looks at me mischeviously.

"No reason." He says. I smile at him and then my smile turns into a yawn. Peeta wraps his arms around me and Laila from behind.

"Aw baby. Your tired?" He says into my ear.

For some reason this really turns me on.

"Oh Peeta. I've missed you at night." I say.

"Well, most nights I've been with you in the hospital."

"No. I mean when we were alone. We haven't had time alone together in a long time."

He knows what I mean.

"Well, you know why that is." He says trying to change the subject. But I'm not going to let him.

"I've missed your hot, sweaty body on mine," I start, "The feel of you inside of me. Your tongue pressed against me." My neck cranes back so it's resting on Peeta's shoulder.

"I need you." I say in a seductive voice.  
He just lets go of me and walks to the light switch.

"Katniss, not now."

"Yes now! Why not? We can just wait till Laila falls asleep and keep a baby monitor in our room!" I say walking closer to him.

"No, kat-"

"Peeta, I've been craving sex for weeks. Please? It'll feel _sooo_ good, because it's been so long." I say walking closer to him and putting my hand on his crotch.

"Please babe, just wait fo-"

I bunch the material of his trackies in my hand and he gasps.

"Fuck me." I whisper into his ear, and he reaches up to turn on the light switch.

Suddenly, I hear a crowd of people shouting, 'Surprise!'

I turn around, scream and nearly drop Laila from shock.

There they stand, in the living room. Gale and his family, Haymitch, my mom, Effie, Annie and her son Finn, Johanna, Delly, Beetee, Greasy Sae, Plutarch and a few other people I don't know. I stare at them in horror as they look at me and laugh, happy that they surprised me.

Oh my god! They just heard everything I said! My whole seductive rant to Peeta, to try and get into his pants! My mom heard. She probably thinks I'm an animal who only cares about sex. And Gale! Oh damn. This is so embarrassing.

"Katniss!" My mom says, running up to me and hugging me, carefully not touching Laila. I pretend that I'm ecstatic to see them all.

"Mom! It's so great to see you!" I use one arm to return the hug, and over her shoulder give Peeta a 'help me' look.

She breaks the hug and gasps as she see's Laila. She gently takes her out of my arms. "Oh my goodness! Sweetie! She is gorgose! I'm the luckiest grandmother in the world." She sighs as Peeta comes up to me and puts his arm around my waist. I put mine around his back.

"I know, she's perfect." Peeta says, lightly kissing my forehead. I lean my head against his shoulder.

"Oh. Would you like me to baby-sit tonight?" My mom asks.

"What?" I say, "mom, where are you even staying?"

She gestures towards Hazelle. "Oh, the Hawthorne's were so welcoming. When Peeta called me and told me we were throwing you a baby shower, I didn't wan to drop in on you with your new baby, so sweet Hazelle suggested I stay with them! And anyway, it seems you two need your privacy."

I laugh nervously. "We don't need our privacy. Laila's going to be occupying all of our time now any way!"

"Oh, come on sweetie! Your both young. Sex is as natural as breathing! Now let me tell you something, when your father and I were 18-" She starts, but I don't want to hear the rest of the story.

"Okay, okay!" I shout.

Both her and Peeta laugh. She then holds Laila level to her eyes and kisses her, saying "You're gorgeous my sweet heart. Gorgeous!"  
She looks so sweet in my mom's arms.

"So, how's the Capitol?" Peeta asks my mom. She holds Laila normally again.

Oh, it's fantastic! You two should really come up there sometime. Their going to renovate the whole city next month! It's going to be amazing." She sighs.

To be honest, I don't think it needs any renovation. Compared to here, anyway.

I look back over at everyone in the living room. There all looking at me and Peeta, waiting for us to come over.

"Come on then, let's go say hi to everyone." Peeta says, reading my thoughts again. He takes my hand and leads me over to everyone.

"Katniss! Darling!" Effie says, giving me a huge kiss on the cheek that leaves a big red mark. She hasn't changed a bit. Her big curly wig is now purple. "It's been so long! How are you feeling?" She says.

I nod. "Pretty good! Still so sore from the birth though."

She puts her arms around me and consoles me, saying that the pain will go away. I don't know how she knows, she's never had kids. My mom then comes up behind me, and I hear everyone shrieking in excitement and awing as they see Laila.

Haymitch comes up to Peeta and I.

"Hey sweetheart." He says putting his arm around me.

"Haymitch." I say, hugging him. I then let go and he goes round to hug Peeta.

After that, he says, "So, how's everything?"

"Good. How's the Capitol?" Peeta says. He seems to be really interested in it today.

Haymitch moved back to the capitol a few weeks after Peeta moved back to 12. He said he couldn't bare the memories. So he left. He hasn't come back until today.

"It's fine. You know, there doing MORE renovation." He rolls his eyes. This makes me laugh because his response was so different to my moms.

I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around and see Gale. Standing behind me. "Hey Gale." I say.

"Hey catnip." He says. We just stand there for a moment in awkward silence, remembering our last meeting where he stormed off after making Peeta go mutt. Then finally, he breaks the ice. "Your baby's really cute."

I smile, because even though I know how much he hates Peeta, he can't hate his child. I don't think anyone can.

"Thank you." I reply.

"Katniss!" I hear someone calling. I turn around and see Johanna a few meters behind me.

"Johanna!" I call back.

She hasn't changed. Her smile still turns into a scowl when she sees me. The only thing different is her hair. It's grown back fully, and she looks quite pretty.

She walks over to me and manages a smile.

"Hey. You've changed." She says.

"Oh, is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I say back.

"Neither. Both. We'll, you're a mommy now."

I laugh. "Yep. I am."

She sighs and puts her arm around my shoulder.

"So how's Peeta?"  
I point in his direction. "He's over there. Talking to Plutarch and Annie."  
"Oh my god. Have you seen Finn? He is the most hilarious kid ever! He's exactly like Finnick!"

We both laugh, remembering the charming and sweet Finnick Odair.

"Really? That's cute." I say.

"So is your baby more like you or Peeta?" she says.

I shrug. "Um, I don't know. It's too soon to tell."  
She sighs, again. "Let's hope she looks like Peeta. Wouldn't want her turning out like you." She says scrunching her face up as she looks at me.

"What? Are you saying I'm ugly?!" I say shocked, but I know she's just kidding.

"It's a joke Everdeen!" She laughs.

I shake my head. "I'm not Everdeen any more." I say, waving my hand in the air.

She grabs it and stares at the ring with an open mouth.

Peeta gave it to me a week before Laila and I could leave the hospital. It's a beautiful, diamond ring, with green emeralds around the rim/side, because he knows green is my favorite colour. On the actually bit that goes around my finger, it has, "Star-crossed lovers" engraved on it.

"Jesus Christ!" Johanna says putting my hand back down.

"He must be a good boyfriend."

I look over at him, and see that he's holding Finn on his hip and talking to Plutarch about something. Probably the Capitol.

"Yeah. He's the best." I say

"And, uh… he must be good in bed, if he managed to get you knocked up that quickly." She says.

I laugh, again and say, "Hell yeah! I think part of the reason I'm still sore is because of that." We both laugh and I feel someone touching my back. Peeta's standing behind me, holding Finn Odair. Peeta probably just caught the end of my sentence, and he smiles at me mischeviously.

Finn looks at me and then reaches down to touch my stomach. "You no fat no more! You… you was supposed to having a baby!" He says.

We all laugh, except for him.

"Sweetie, I've had my baby already! She's over there." I point to Delly who's holding Laila.

Finn immediately jumps off of Peeta and walks towards Delly. "Sorry ladies, I gotta leave you!"

He carries on walking.

"Oh my god, he is just like Finnick!" I sigh. Even his looks, those sea green eyes and messy hair. I just wish Finnick was alive to see him. Suddenly, I feel a pain in my chest. I wince, and Peeta and Johanna notice.

"You alright?" She says, I just nod to say yes.

"Katniss, come upstairs." Peeta says leading me away from the crowded living room. "See you later Johanna." Peeta yells over his shoulder, and I gesture towards her with my hand in an attempt to say bye.  
"Katniss! Hey Katniss!" I hear everyone say as I walk past them. I clutch my chest and smile and nod at them.

There's a searing sharp pain running through my breasts.

When we get upstairs, Peeta takes me into our room and he locks the door behind us. I sit on the bed and double over in pain.

"What's happening?" I ask Peeta, because the nurse never really warned me about this.

"Well, she told me that if this happens, it means your producing milk. Is there a… pain in your chest?" He says. I nod. He then picks up a book that's lying on the floor next to the bed and flicks through it until he stops at one page.

"Yep. That's all it is. We just have to…" he squints at the book trying to see the words, "massage the breast until the flow of milk can be released?" He shuts the book, puts it down and carefully rids me of my shirt. He tries to undo my bra, but I shuffle around to stop him.

"What's the matter Katniss?" He says.

"It's embarrassing! I don't want my milk, squirting all over you!" I shrug.

He throws his hands up. "Babe, right now, I couldn't care less. Okay? Just, take off your bra. The quicker we do this, the quicker we can head back down." I sulk and try to protest. In the end, he pins me down on the bed, and sits on me with his knees holding my arms down, while he takes off my bra.

"See?" He says when it's off. "You could of made that a lot easier for me!" I narrow my eyes at him and try to riggle free, but he is way too strong.

"Okay baby, now I have to massage them. Please don't move around so much I don't want to hurt you!" He says, but I toss myself around in annoyence.

His hands start to rub my breasts, and it feels good. It starts to take the pain away from my chest. I still try and loosen his grip by moving. I jerk my whole body sideways, but he still hangs onto my breasts. I shudder at the pain and groan in discomfort. Peeta looks at me, as if saying 'I told you so.' So I carry on thrashing. I decide to try and use my legs, so I kick them around in the air behind him. It makes the bed rattle. He's really hurting my boobs! I carry on groaning in discomfort. I kick my legs more, and the bed rattles more and more. Peeta keeps saying, "Jesus Christ Katniss!" and "Fucking hell!" I carry on kicking, and thrashing, but he doesn't get off of me. The more I thrash, the more it hurts, so I start screaming. "Aaah! Peeta!"

Suddenly, there's a knock at the door. Peeta and I both lift up our heads at the same time.

"Katniss? Peeta? I'm sorry to interrupt you, but could you keep it down a little bit? It's disturbing the people downstairs!" It's my mom. I jump off of the bed and run to the door. "Oh, no, mom! We weren't…"

"Oh hun don't you worry!" She then puts on some weird twangy accent, "The twos of ya can bang all the hell ya want! Jus' as long as ya don't kill eachotha!"

I laugh because I think she's a little tipsy. I'm guess the people downstairs were getting the wrong impression of what me and Peeta were doing.

I wait till mom's footsteps are far away, then I go back to Peeta.

He's smirking. I'm trying hard to keep a straight face as well.

"Well. That was interesting." I say and he bursts out laughing.

"Oh god! Everyone must think were sexaholics!" He laughs. I sit down next to him on the bed.

He grins at me and tucks the hair behind my ear.

"You know, that kind of turned me on." He says.

"What, my mom sort of walking in on us?"

"No! Before. When we were on the bed." He says. I lean in and start licking the lobe of his ear.

"It turned me on too." I whisper. I then start kissing his chin and work my way up to his lips. He returns my kisses passionately and I wrap my arms around his neck. He then lies me down, while my arms are still wrapped around his neck. I feel a rush of excitement run through me. It's been so long! I can't wait till he's inside me. Of course, he'll want to do it quickly so we can get back downstairs.

We break our kiss so he can work at taking off my trousers. I then start to undo the tie on his tracksuit bottoms and pull them off. His hands yank down my panties while mine fiddle with his boxers. When that's done, I rip off his shirt and let my hands tickle his abs. They trace the thin line of blonde hair down to his genitles. Every things going so quickly.

"Are you okay?" Peeta says.

"Yes! Come one!" I say. He's gotten so worried about me lately. I guess it's because I'm so noticabley weaker then I was before. Slowly, he slids himself into me and I let out a cry of pain. It feels like my first time all over again, but worse. Much worse. There's no blood in evidence, but it feels like there should be. He pulls out.

"Katniss! Did I hurt you?" He says in alarm.

I shake my head and wince. "No, no I'm fine! Carry on!" I urge him, but he doesn't sound convinced. He keeps trying to protest, but I grab onto his shoulders and pull him inside of me. After I manage to convince Peeta It's alright, he carefully starts thrusting. Each thrust makes me wince in pain. When I lost my virginity, the pain stopped after a bit, but now it's constant. I manage to hide my pain for a while but eventually my eyes start to water and Peeta notices.

He immediately slides out of me.

I throw my hands up.

"Peeta! Why did you stop?"  
"Babe, there is no way we are carrying on, okay? Your obviously not 100% recovered yet and your in so much pain!" He says.

"No I'm not!" I huff, but he looks at me, as if to say, 'Really?'

Why does it hurt so much? It shouldn't hurt anymore! This is making me so annoyed! I feel the tears start to well up in my eyes.

"Katniss," Peeta says trying to console me, but I burst into full on waterworks.

I bury my face in the pillow and pull the duvet from under me over my head in frustration. I lie there crying for a minute. I hear the door shut behind me but don't bother looking up.

It seems like ages before I hear the door again and Peeta puts his hand on my back. When he does, I life my head up.

"Where did you go?" I sniff. I see he has his trackies on.

He strokes my hair. "I went down stairs to tell everyone that you didn't feel well, so your going to stay up here until you feel better. They all started making jokes, like 'Oh, you two have been busy!' and Plutarch said 'Try not to fall through the floor.'"

I giggle.

"Then Haymitch said, 'Jesus, you two sound like animals up there!'"

I giggle more, because that's exactly what I thought everyone would think of me after… my little speech.

Peeta kisses my head. "I love it when you giggle." We stay like this for a while, him kissing my neck, and face. Then, I decide I better go apologise to everyone downstairs. They must be pretty occupied, though, with Laila.

"Peeta?"

I say. "I need to go apologize to everyone."

"Okay babe." He doesn't protest, which obviously means he thinks I do need to. I get up out of the bed and walk towards the bedroom door. When I open it, I can hear the low hum of music and wine glass clinks downstairs. The ambience sound is so soothing. I look back at Peeta, and wave my hand for him to follow me.

"Um, Katniss?" He asks.

"What?" I say.

"Your clothes?"


	11. Fifteen years later

"Laila!" I yell up the stairs. "Laila! Hurry up!"  
We are going to be late for the concert. Haymitch was meant to meet us in town with everyone ten minutes ago. "Laila!"  
Peeta comes into the room in his nicest tuxedo. He's the one who's most worried about being late.

"Peeta, go tell you daughter to hurry up. You're the one who want us to be there on time!" I say and he sighs and runs up the stairs into Laila's room. I hear them talking.

"Daddy, I'm nearly ready!"  
"Come on Laila, your keeping everyone ready! It's selfish!"  
"Okay, okay! Let's go!"  
They both come down the stairs. Laila looks stunning, but way too grown up for my taste.

Her long black hair is in a messy bun and she has heavy makeup. Her pink dress is way too tight and it barely covers her bum. There are no sleeves and she's showing off too much of her chest as well.

"Did I say you could go out looking like a prostitute?" I say to her as she reaches the bottom of the stairs.

"What? Why don't you like my outfit?" She says so innocently.

"Too grown up. Way too grown up." I say.

"Oh god leave it Katniss! Were late as it is!" Peeta says ushering me out of the door.

Laila slips on her black duffle coat and black heels and comes strutting out of the door.

"Well, it's not like your covering up, it is mom?"  
She says so matter-of-factly.

"Move. Get in the car." Peeta pushes us as he shuts and locks the front door.

It's true. I'm not covering up. I'm wearing a black dress that's just as short if not shorter then Laila's, but it has long sleeves. The neckline does go down a lot though.

"Um, I'm a thirty three year old women, you're fifteen! I can wear what I like, and you have to wear what I say is suitable." I tease

"Mom!" She whines as we file into the car.

Peeta slides in the drivers seat next to me and starts the car so quickly that my door is still open.

"Whoa! Peeta slow down!" I say as he speeds down the road.

"Daddy, who's going to be there tonight?" Laila asks.

We are going to this concert in town. It's not the sort of music I particularly like, but we have to go because we 'Represent the district' apparently. Laila's been looking forward to it, though, so I try and act enthusiastic. She really has developed a love for music. Ever since she was little she always liked listening to it. I think she's got that from me.

"Well grandpa Haymitch of course, Gale, Johanna, Robyn and Roxy, and… oh! Annie and Finn."

I peer at Laila in the rear view mirror as a smile creeps onto her face.

"Oh. Okay." She says trying to sound un-interested.

"Laila?" I say cheekily. "Are you dressing like that to impress Finn?"

She sounds shocked but is smiling from ear to ear.

"No! I don't like Finn. He's too…"

"…sexy, funny, handsome?" I say trying impersonating her.

She laughs and starts blushing.

"No mom! I don't like him. Really." She says and I look behind my shoulder at her. She is looking out of the window trying to stop smiling.

I turn back around.

So, Johanna seems happy." I say to Peeta.

He quickly looks at me and then back at the road.

"Yeah, yeah she's good. She came down to the bakery the other day with the twins. Their nice kids! Nothing like either Johanna or Gale!" He says.

I sigh. "Peeta, their both lovely people so their kids are bound to be lovely too."  
He rolls his eyes. "Yeah. Really lovely."  
"Stop it. Don't be so unreasonable."  
"Oh, I'm the one being unreasonable. She tried to kill you and he tried to rape-"  
"Peeta!" I scold and he quickly shuts up remembering Laila's in the backseat. She pokes her head around Peeta's seat.

"What happened? What happened daddy?" She asks

"Oh, nothing sweetie." I say shooting Peeta an evil glance.

"Mom, you can tell me! Please! What happened?" She pleads.

Luckily I have gotten very good at the whole 'stretch the true' lying to kids. When Laila was younger, she would ask questions like, 'What were those noises coming from your room last night mommy?'

And I'd say, 'Oh we were just watching a movie,' or 'daddy was just messing around. I'm sorry we woke you.' When she got older, we had to be a bit quieter though. She would ask us questions like, 'How did Finns dad die?' and, 'Why does dad have those weird fits sometimes?' I just say, 'Let's not talk about it,' or, 'Sometimes daddy gets angry and just has to calm down.' I can say, 'Oh, he was eaten by a pack of rabid, screaming lizard mutts while we were on a mission to kill the president of Panem.' And I definitely cant say, 'When the Capitol was evil, they took daddy away and hurt him, tortured him, interrogated him and scared him so much that he forgot he loved me and he wanted to kill me.'

So I just say,

"You know daddy and Gale don't get on. We just had an argument once and daddy got annoyed at him."  
She nods and carries on looking out of the window.

About ten minutes later we pull on the curb near where Haymitch is. I get out of the car and walk round to Laila.  
We then walk up to greet Haymitch.

"Grandpa!" Laila says, running to hug him.

"Hey sweetie. My, you are a stunner." He says retuning her hug.

He loves her so much. You can see it in his eyes every time he sees her. She absolutely worships the ground he walks on as well.

"Don't you think it's a little too grown up?" I say.

He rolls his eyes. "The things your mother used to wear when I was her mentor! She spent half of the Quarter Quell waltzing around in only her underwear!"  
This makes her laugh.

"Laila!" Someone calls from behind us.

I turn around and see Finn, looking as handsome as ever walking up to us.

He's a good kid. Looks identical to Finnick. He doesn't care though, what he looks like. In that way he is more like Annie.

"Finn." Laila says, walking over to greet him.

Haymitch sighs as she leaves his grasp. "Loves me then leaves me." He says.

I laugh breathily and go over to greet the others.

"Annie!" I say, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Katniss, you look beautiful!" she says.

"Thank you. You know, Laila has a bit of a thing for your son." I say quietly.

"Really? Well he'll be happy to hear that. Laila this, Laila that, it's all he can talk about! The other day he said to me, 'When is your next mental check up? I want to go stay at the Mellark's!'" This makes me laugh. Annie was diagnosed with Schizophrenia when Finn was one. He stays at our house sometimes when she has check ups at the mental hospital.

"Aw. Well, he is one good-looking kid. Good genes." I say.

"She's a beauty as well, you must be so proud."  
We both look at them, laughing, flirting, chatting and don't mention how weird it would be if the dated, or got married and had kids.

Peeta comes walking over, talking to Haymitch. He gives Johanna a hug and just nods 'hey' to Gale.

"Annie!" He says, giving her a hug.

I turn around and se both Gale and Johanna.

"Hey Catnip!" gale says and I hug both of them in separate arms.

"How you doing?" Johanna says un-interestedly.

"Oh, I'm good. You guys? How are the twins?"  
Johanna huffs. "When does it get easy Katniss?" We all laugh. "Never. I'm still finding it hard."  
Gale and Johanna got married about eight years ago, when thy found out Johanna was pregnant with twins. They seem happy, and I feel happy for them.

"Well, shall we go then?" Peeta says ushering us all towards the concert hall.  
"Yep lets go. Laila!" I turn around and call for Laila. She comes running up in her too high heels.

Laila take Peeta's hand and I take the other one. We walk down the street in a line behind the others.

"So Laila." Peeta says. "Finn seems to like you a lot." I can feel the smile on her face.

"I hope so. I mean… um… really?" She says. I laugh because that is the worse covers up I've ever heard.

"Ah my baby girl." Peeta says and kisses her head.

I rest my head on his shoulder and he kisses it. Finn keeps peering behind his shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of Laila. If any other boy were to be this flirty with my daughter, I would mind. But because it's Finn, it's okay. He is such a nice guy and no one is good enough for my daughter, except maybe him. I respect him a lot. It must be hard to have never met your dad and to have to support your schizophrenic mother.

"Just don't get pregnant Laila. Okay?" Peeta says.

"Dad!" She says shocked.

"What? I don't want you to make the same mistake we did." He says.

"Oh, so you're saying I was a mistake?"  
"No! No, I'm just saying a baby's hard work. Your still a virgin right?"  
She sighs in embarrassment.

"Yes dad."

He laughs. "That's my girl."  
He then kisses my cheek and I turn my face so our lips are touching. His teeth gently bite my bottom lip and I groan quietly.

"Ewe!" Laila says looking at us disgustedly. "Can you guys not make-out in public. Please?"

Peeta and I both laugh and stop kissing.

"I love you Mellark." I whisper into his ear as we walk.

Right now, I feel like the luckiest person in the world. Because of Peeta, I have the most beautiful daughter. I have the best life I could ever have wished for. Because of Peeta, I am whole again.

THE END!


End file.
